Retired New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice Sherman Horton Jr., who served on the high court during a turbulent decade that included the attempted impeachment of the chief judge, died earlier this week, his son said Friday. He was 83.

Sherman Horton III said his father died Wednesday in hospice care at Concord Hospital, where he had been since Monday following an eight-year illness. He had been living in Hillsborough.

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Horton, after a career in private practice, was appointed to the court in June 1990 by his former law partner, Gov. Judd Gregg, to replace David Souter, who later became a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Horton was the first justice in 44 years to be appointed to the high court without having been a lower court judge. He retired in 2000.U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who was a clerk for Horton, called the retired justice a dear friend and mentor.

"I had deep admiration for Justice Horton's keen legal mind, his New Hampshire common sense and his wonderful sense of humor," Ayotte said.

Horton was the lone dissenting opinion on the landmark Claremont school funding decision in which the court ruled the state has a duty to pay for an adequate education. In 1997, it ruled the old property tax system was unconstitutional and ordered the state to find a fairer way to pay for schools. Horton said the system at the time was "far from desirable" but adequate under the constitution.

"It was very important to him to lay the letter of the law against the needs of the community," his son said. "So he sometimes would take an opposing viewpoint, but always with very clear logic and trying to keep the people in mind."

Horton was one of three judges - along with Chief Justice David Brock and Justice John Broderick -- investigated by the House Judiciary Committee in 1999 after the attorney general's office accused them of ethics violations for commenting on cases from which they were disqualified. Lawmakers cleared Horton and Broderick and acquitted Brock of several additional charges. Brock was later impeached by the House but kept his job when the Senate acquitted him.

Horton graduated from Dartmouth College in 1953, joined the Navy and served until 1955 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1958.

He is survived by four children and four grandchildren. His wife, Judith, died in 2007.Funeral arrangements are pending.